Stone Soup Servings Presents: Ryk McIntyre

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Stone Soup Servings is a regular series for Oddball Magazine that features upcoming performers at Stone Soup Poetry, the long-running spoken word venue in the Boston area that has recently partnered with Oddball Magazine. Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery at 106 Prospect Street with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m.

On March 31, we welcome back beloved performance poet Ryk McIntyre, who is celebrating the recent release of his full-length collection After Everything Burns from Sargent Press. Below is an example of newer work, with hopefully much more to come.

Thankful

I have so much in my life to be grateful for, sometimes
I forget to be thankful for the things that are not
and never were, amen, so won’t it be. I’m grateful
for every problem that didn’t cross my path today.
Thank you, weird looking mole, for the inoperable Cancer
that you are not. Oh, not-out-of-City Bus, thank you
for not hopping the curb, ‘cause your driver didn’t stroke out
‘cause his blood pressure is just fine, thanks for asking!

I am grateful for lovers who were not serial killers,
I’m also grateful that question never occurred to meat the time. … that would’ve been awkward…
And when this body fell ill when my legs grew disability,
I came to love every test that told me nothing
and crossed-out a cornucopia of cancers, a whole alphabet
of Hepatitis; thank you every damned disease I was ever tested for,
for not being what’s killing me. Thank you, things that are
killing me for being as disorganized and lazy as I am.
Now, when someone asks “Why do you carry that cane?”
I don’t have to explain, or even say, “I have to, ‘cause otherwise
it has a hell of a time keeping up with me.” Thank you, sense of humor
that now I just deadpan “Shark attack! Happy now?” and walk away…

Thank you, unhappy accidents, for all the near-misses I never saw
coming; for every shark that passed me by, and kept on swimming;
every guardian Angel I’ve worn down to the wing-nubs. I am grateful
to that asteroid that wasn’t the size of North Dakota, and didn’t
crash into the Earth today. Thank you, luck of the draw, thank you,
skin of my teeth, thank you wire for letting me under – Thank you,
moments of grace. Thank you Facebook for not causing Face Cancer
(I don’t know if that’s actually true, but I hope so. I’m on Facebook
…a lot!” This is my song to the whole of creation, for the loopholes
and quiet odds in my favor; for every bad thing that could have happened,

today, and didn’t. God, just for today, let me be grateful for Nothing.